Getting images printed: preparation

• AndyL

  Participant

  September 22, 2008 at 10:56 am

  I hope you can melp me once more, I’m going to get some images printed and have a few questions before I send them off, hopefully they’re not too daft!

  When I try to print a shot on my A4 printer at home, I cant fill the whole sheet. I’m getting some prints done at A4 size, do I need to change the size of the image to suit A4 (eg crop to an A4 sheet dimensions at 300pixels per inch)? I’m also printing some others at 12×16″, will I need to do the same for these images, adjust them to a 12×16″ crop?

  Is pixels per inch in photoshop the same as dpi (dots per inch) requested by the printer?

  Sorry if these are muppet numpty questions, but they’re my first set of prints and I’d like to get it right!

  Thanks all!

  Andy
  stcstc

  Member

  September 22, 2008 at 11:04 am

  hey there

  Firstly

  A4 paper is not the same ratio as the image from your camera, which is why your having to crop the image to make it fit
  BUT, depending on what your doing with the image it may not matter, ie is it is being mounted for example

  the same is true of 16*12, chances are your cmera isnt producing an image with the same ratio

  depending on your printer, there are two main resolutions used, epson use 360 dpi and i think canon and HP use 300

  technically pixels per inch and dots per inch are two very different things, but for simplicity, if you set the photoshop ppi to be either 300 or 360 depending on printer, you will be on the right track.

  hope this helps
  Brian P Byrne

  Participant

  September 22, 2008 at 5:42 pm

  It has been my experience that if you are sending off a digital image to be printed.
  It is best to set the image you are sending to the size of print you require.
  AndyL

  Participant

  September 23, 2008 at 7:34 am

  Thanks for the replies!